


Observations

by ilse_writes



Series: Partners [4]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android communications, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Is a Good Bro, Gavin Reed is oblivious, Gen, Linked to Traffic Jam and Free, Nines talks about his feelings, Protective Connor, at the precinct, connor's pov, taking care of your partner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 12:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19229560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilse_writes/pseuds/ilse_writes
Summary: Connor keeps an eye out for his little brother Nines. He worries like a good bro and tries to help Nines to fit in as well as possible. Nines does his best to be a good partner to Gavin, even though Gavin is a little oblivious to some of it.





	Observations

Connor carefully sticks a thumbtack in the corners of the picture, leaning back to admire his handiwork. The picture of RK900 and detective Reed holding the baby they delivered on the side of the road a couple of weeks back hangs neatly next to the picture of himself and RK. 

Each desk in the bullpen is fitted with a screen divider on one corner, both giving the occupant of the desk some privacy and quiet, as well as doubling as a personal message board. Lieutenant Anderson’s board is a collection of notes, old tickets to games of the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Lions and a single picture of his late son Cole. Connor uses his for pictures - one of him, Hank and Sumo, several of the Saint Bernard alone and a second copy of the picture of him and RK.

The first two months RK900’s board had been bare. ‘I don’t need to write down notes,’ his ever practical successor told Connor when asked why he had nothing pinned on his board. He let it slide, until he couldn’t stand looking at the bare desk any longer; whenever the android was away for a case, the desk looked like it didn’t belong to anybody. That didn’t feel right.  
Connor prompted his fellow detective to at least personalise his board somewhat. RK900 repeated a version of his earlier argument, truthfully stating that every picture he wished to look at was readily available for viewing within his head. A second argument was that his partner, detective Reed, also didn’t decorate his desk - if you didn’t count empty coffee cups and discarded cereal bar wrappers.

Connor knew how much his successor was trying to be a seamless addition to their partnership. Emphasis on trying, because where the RK800 models were designed to integrate with human society, no such goals were kept in mind when programming RK900’s parameters. The last masterpiece of CyberLife was designated to nip the newly started android revolution in the bud and make the RK800 model obsolete. Afterwards, the RK900 models would be deployed as soldiers, for instance in the Arctic conflict. The military was their initial purpose after all; the android revolution merely forced CyberLife to rush the development of the RK900 model.   
Luckily, things went differently. There was only one RK900, as a prototype he was even more unique than Connor. 

Connor felt oddly protective of RK900 ever since he was re-activated by Markus and his troupe. Connor was present, watching the android that was meant to kill him come to life again. His main objective of bringing down the android revolution and its key figures was disabled before re-activation, leaving the choice of a new objective to RK900 himself. Choosing turned out to be rather difficult for the new android, his programming specifically designed to withstand deviancy and strictly follow orders.

One of his first choices was not even a real choice: RK900 merely aired his preference to go home with Connor instead of staying at CyberLife Tower, the home to the very movement RK900 was originally meant to take down. He never really explained to Connor why he didn’t want to stay there, but it was easy to see the tension in his body during his time at the tower.   
Luckily, Hank was easily persuaded to open his home to a second android, saying they didn’t drink his beer anyway. Not that RK900 stayed very long: after he started working for the DPD he only came home for the weekends. During the week he prefered staying at the precinct, in the storage room where the DPD androids were housed before the revolution. The only furniture in the room was a table and two chairs, next to several stasis pods. It was a grey, bare room without windows. Connor hated that he stayed there, yet he was also of a mind to let RK900 make his own choices. 

Connor might not always understand why RK900 did things or why he went a certain way about them, yet he always tried to be supportive. ‘Like a true big brother,’ Hank said recently, leaving Connor to ponder about the remark for the rest of the evening. He guessed the way he felt about his successor was similar to the way one might feel about a sibling. He had heard officer Miller talk about his younger brother a couple of times: proud when he graduated from college and annoyed when the young man spent the first weeks after graduation hopping from party to party instead of doing job interviews. 

He was proud of his own little brother - who was in fact two inches taller than him - for the way he enrolled in his new job. The RK-series were a perfect fit for police work, especially the later models. It was truly satisfying to see how well he had adapted to working as a detective with the DPD.  
Truthfully, Connor had his doubts when RK900 was partnered with detective Reed. It was a logical decision of captain Fowler, as Reed was the only detective without a partner and they wouldn’t let the android start working without a partner. Having a partner was good for RK900, reclusive as he could be; Connor just wished his new partner had more empathy, or just better social skills in general. RK900 said he didn’t mind, he merely saw creating a beneficial partnership with the rude detective as a challenge. Connor suspected it was more a question of not wanting to fail, grasping this opportunity to work at the DPD with both hands, no matter the circumstances. 

Their build and programming made the RK-models very much suitable to work with partners; CyberLife called them handlers. They were perfectly capable to work alone, yet there was something in their software that made them connect to a partner almost naturally. When Connor met Hank he wasn’t a deviant and the instruction to partner up with the lieutenant was a strong motive to persevere when the human was reluctant to work with an android. Deviancy had not changed that, if anything it had made their bond stronger. 

Gavin Reed was nothing like lieutenant Anderson and although their specifications overlapped greatly, RK900 was totally different from Connor. Where Hank was mainly reluctant towards androids, detective Reed was downright hostile. The approach Connor used on the lieutenant didn’t work on his younger colleague. It was Hank who told RK900 to ‘give that sullen bastard a taste of his own medicine’. 

RK900 trying to live up to that advice made for an interesting memory. His android brother always tried to be polite towards others and he had done the same with Reed at first. That one time he had the detective pinned over his desk because Reed tried to hit him, really shook him. At the time he had suppressed it, only for all the stress to come out at night, when he sat on the couch, half hidden under Sumo; RK900’s LED had been red most of the night.  
However, the detective never tried to hit him again and for the next couple of days he kept his distance. Of course, being Gavin Reed, the detective returned to his rude self pretty fast. And that’s when RK900 started to talk back, not taking his shit anymore. It had taken some back up from Connor first - their wireless connection came in handy at that point, until RK900 was fluent in countering his partner’s sarcasm and crass remarks.

Connor looks at the picture of the detectives with the baby again. The day RK900 delivered that baby had been a joyous one. His brother shared his delight with him through a direct link, extremely joyful that he had helped bring new life into the world. The fact that his partner had called him ‘Nines’ for the first time that day was almost as pleasing to the android. The nickname stuck too, by now it had replaced most of Reed’s name calling when addressing his android partner.

Movement on the other end of the room has Connor moving again. He receives a ping in greeting as RK900, or Nines, sets foot into the bullpen. He holds the door for his partner, who is too busy on his phone to notice it. The two have returned from lunch at a bistro near the precinct and Connor is pleased to see the white plastic bag Nines is carrying. He takes it from his brother when he passes him on his way to his desk, saying thanks to his brother and nodding a greeting to the detective.

Reed doesn’t acknowledge him, he stalks towards his desk and lets himself fall into his chair. His phone slides on the desk and he immediately pulls his keyboard towards him to get to work. He has to wait for a file to load however and that’s when his attention lands on the man two desks over.   
“What the fuck, Anderson? Where did you get that from?” 

Hank only grunts something, taking a large bite of the pastrami sandwich he just unwrapped. 

“I asked Nines to bring something for the lieutenant,” Connor answers in his stead. “He was too busy to be thinking about proper nutrition, so I placed an order at the bistro.”

“Christ, so now you’ve got two androids to take care of you?” Gavin snickers, his hand automatically moving up to receive the cup of coffee Nines brings him. “Thanks,” he says absentmindedly, before gesturing with his free hand towards the lieutenant and looking back to his partner. “Really, Nines? Is he your sugar daddy now too? Are you two sharing him?”

“Gross, Reed! Real mature.” Hank grunts, at the same time as Nines says: “Stop projecting, detective.”   
The way Reed flusters is a good example of how well talking back works with him, especially when Nines does it.

“You’re one to talk, Reed,” Hank says after another bite of his sandwich. He eyes the cup of coffee in Reed’s hand.

“Now who’s projecting?” Gavin exclaims. “You’re the one with his personal caretaker, not me!” 

Connor detects no lie in that statement. The detective believes what he says. He opens up a wireless connection.

<Connor> _ The detective is oblivious, isn’t he? _

<RK900> _ Gavin Reed is an outstanding detective, I wouldn’t call him oblivious.  _

<Connor> _ Going out for lunch was your idea, wasn’t it? _

<RK900> _ That’s correct. The detective had a cereal bar for breakfast, I thought it wise to make him sit down for a real lunch. _

<Connor> _ And he didn’t ask you to bring him coffee. _

<RK900> _ I always bring him coffee when we come in, you know that. _

<Connor> _ Then the term that comes to mind to describe detective Reed’s behaviour is still ‘oblivious’.  _

<RK900> _ Selectively oblivious maybe. _

<RK900> _ Thank you for the picture. I like it very much. _

<Connor> _ You’re welcome. _

A little while later Connor sees detective Reed walk over to Nines’ desk, to look at something on his monitor. When he sees the detective glancing at the memo board, he tunes in to the conversation, pretending to read something at his terminal.

“... have that picture up?”

“Because I like it. It reminds me of a special day.”

Detective Reed is silent for a moment, one hand on the back of Nines’ chair, the other hand leaning on the desk. He studies the picture and Connor sees his face go soft. It’s only for a moment though, that shitty half smirk is back pretty quickly.   
“Yeah, okay, I guess it’s not every day you end up between a woman’s legs.”

“That’s Reese’s mother you’re talking about, detective. We helped bring new life into this world. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t joke about it.”  
Although Nines doesn’t look up at Reed, he probably knows the detective’s cheeks turn slightly pink at his words.

The detective coughs nervously, straightening up. He looks at the picture again and then bumps Nines’ shoulder with his fist. “Who knew you had it in you to become a midwife, huh?”

There is silence instead of a reaction. Even though it was a rhetorical question, Connor expected his brother to say something in return. Yet Nines stares at his hands, holding them in front of him with the fingers spread out. Connor can’t see his LED from this position, but he bets it’s no longer blue. Reed sees it too, looking from Nines’ temple to his hands and back. The detective makes a half turn and rests his backside against the desk, now facing his partner. He’s about to say something, when Nines speaks up, sounding detached.  
“I can break an android’s wrist with one hand. With two hands I can sever a limb from the body. I was made to stop a revolution, by all means necessary. I was made to end life, not help it begin.” 

All pretense in Connor is gone, he doesn’t look at his terminal anymore, all his attention is focused on his brother and his partner. He is ready to intervene the moment the detective verbally attacks Nines in this vulnerable condition. 

Reed puts his hand over Nines’ lower arm, seeking his eyes.   
“It doesn’t matter what you are made for. It’s about what you  _ do _ . You are a police detective. You protect and serve, just like the rest of us here.”  
Reed keeps his voice down to keep things private, though his words don’t sound less urgent.   
“So what if those fucking freaks at CyberLife made you the perfect killing machine? You  _ chose _ to do something different. You helped a baby get born for fuck’s sake! Those hands were the first to touch Reese.”

Connor is pleasantly surprised by the detective’s words; they show a great deal of compassion, the opposite of Reed’s more well known traits.

Nines looks at his hands again, the empty stare from before is gone. “She was so slippery,” he says quietly.

Reed chuckles, removing his hand from Nines’ arm and crossing his arms in front of his chest. He looks relaxed now. “I would’ve dropped her for sure!”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Nines answers earnestly, looking up at his partner. It makes Gavin flustered again. Who knew it would be so easy to embarrass the detective? All it takes is an honest observation of his partner.   
Said partner changes the subject abruptly. “Can you take a look at the timestamps on the footage I found?”

Reed recovers quickly, turning back around towards the terminal. “Show me what you got, tin can.”   
The two detectives continue to discuss their case, like they didn’t have their short heart to heart just a minute ago.

After a last look to be sure everything is back to normal, Connor turns back to his own terminal. He opens their connection.

<Connor> _ Are you all right? _

<RK900> _ Yes.  _

<RK900> _ It’s impolite to listen in to other people’s conversations. _

<Connor> _ I just wanted to make sure the detective wasn’t upsetting you. I must say I was pleasantly surprised about the way he reacted. _

<RK900> _ Surprised? _

<Connor> _ Yes. Didn’t his words surprise you? _

<RK900> _ Of course not. He’s my partner, he’s got my back. _

 


End file.
